Mo'Nique Sues Netflix For Race & Gender Discrimination

The Oscar-winning actress and esteemed comedian announced on Thursday (November 14) that she filed a lawsuit against the streaming service. "Hi My Loves I can confirm that today I filed a pay discrimination lawsuit against Netflix," she wrote on Instagram. "I had a choice to make: I could accept what I felt was pay discrimination or I could stand up for those who came before me and those who will come after me. I chose to stand up. I don't have any further comment this time, but I appreciate all of your support and love."

The suit, which was obtained by CNN, states that Netflix offered Mo'Nique to appear in a one-hour comedy special for $500,000 while the company signed multi-million dollar deals with other comedians, including Jerry Seinfeld, Amy Schumer, Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock and Ellen DeGeneres.

"The terms of Netflix's offer to Mo'Nique were discriminatory based on her gender and race/color," the suit states. "The offer tried to perpetuate the drastic pay gap experienced by Black women" when compared to both men and white people. The suit continues, "Despite Mo'Nique's extensive résumé and documented history of comedic success, when Netflix presented her with an offer of employment for an exclusive stand-up comedy special, Netflix made a lowball offer that was only a fraction of what Netflix paid other (non-Black female) comedians."

As fans know, Mo'Nique called for fans to boycott Netflix for "color bias and gender bias" back in January 2018, just after receiving Netflix's offer.

"Netflix simply refused to engage in any negotiation and presented its offer on 'take-it-or-leave-it' terms," Mo'Nique's suit states.

The comedian additionally accused the company of lacking diversity in her lawsuit, claiming, "Netflix has maintained a corporate culture — reaching the highest levels of senior leadership — that has been insensitive to Black workers. Relatedly, the company has been plagued by a lack of racial diversity within senior leadership, as well as across the organization."

Netflix has since responded to Mo'Nique's accusations, replying in a statement: "We care deeply about inclusion, equity, and diversity and take any accusations of discrimination very seriously. We believe our opening offer to Mo'Nique was fair -- which is why we will be fighting this lawsuit."